PRESS RELEASE
LA GRANDE HEURE MINUTE MÉDIUM
Hommage Londres 1774
Jaquet Droz is proud to announce two new additions to its "Hommage London 1774" Collection: the Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut and the Grande Heure Minute médium émail. In doing so, the Manufacture has struck a fabulous alliance between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary aesthetics.
Some people would call this a beautiful story, others a dream come true. Either way, the creations of the Manufacture's founder Pierre Jaquet Droz were always the stuff of legends. The son of peasants from the Swiss Jura Mountains, he started in 1738 a manufacture that still bears his name. A watchmaking genius and a hard worker, he also produced musical snuffboxes, mechanical singing birds and three spectacular humanoid automata ("The Musician", "The Artist" and "The Draughtsman") that established his reputation for exhilarating creativity. A man of vision, he was also ambitious and self-confident, opening a workshop in London in 1774.
The "Hommage London 1774" Collection was inspired by a success story rooted on the European Continent but also in London, which was then the cultural, economic and political capital of an empire spanning the earth. The Grande Heure Minute médium presides over this collection, like a Muse. Its centred hours-minutes subdial is partnered by an off-centred seconds subdial at nine o'clock. The sweep of the seconds hand animates the handsome face of this exceptional timepiece at all times.
True to its reputation for inventiveness, drawing on springs of creativity that never run dry, Jaquet Droz is presenting two new models, the Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut and the Grande Heure Minute médium émail, in a Numerus Clausus edition limited to 88. Distinctive for their purity of design and generous size (41 mm), both of these timepieces possess the understated beauty of a classic men's watch as well as a bold, contemporary minimalism. It is a consummate expression of the codes that made Jaquet Droz famous, including the smooth-polished case, self-winding mechanical movement and secret signature.
Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut
Stunning and mysterious, the Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut explores myriad watchmaking possibilities via shapes, materials and contrasts. Applied Roman numerals of black steel add an architectural component to the three-dimensional beauty of its design by setting up a subtle interaction between the materials, the light and the opaline dial. The small, brushed-steel seconds subdial at nine o'clock and its applied ring reinforce the graphic fullness of the Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut. Black matte surfaces engage in a chromatic dialogue with glossy metal, as the smoothness of the dial contrasts with volumes forged from steel. This handsome watch is a poetic statement of the watchmaker's art, firmly anchored in the third millennium.
Grande Heure Minute médium émail
This timepiece summarizes what is most precious in watchmaking and its pure lines defy fickle fashion. The Grande Heure Minute Email grants each passing instant elegance and modernity, two values at the core of the Jaquet Droz identity. Its "grand feu" enamelled dial is a feat of technical prowess courtesy of the master dial-makers at the Manufacture. It is like a blank page on which each fleeting moment writes history. It has a finely textured surface where blued steel hands encounter delicately stylised Roman numerals. At nine o'clock, the seconds hand sweeps around the outer circle of the subdial, the enamel finely marked. It's like a game where black meets pure ivory. Reminiscent of another era, past or to come, the Grande Heure Minute médium émail possesses a refinement that transcends Time.
Plato once said: "Time is the moving image of immobile eternity". Jaquet Droz took this to heart when it created the Grande Heure Minute médium émail and the Grande Heure Minute médium réhaut. Since the days of Antiquity, mankind has desired immortality. At last, a magnificent watch fulfils this dream.